Little White Lies

He shrugged.

“Remember the goal, Charley,” James said.

“I’m in the back, bay four,” Cael said. His voice came through her earpiece and the wall.

“The walls are thin in here, aren’t they?” Charley said for Cael’s benefit.

Two beads of sweat adorned the silent man’s forehead.

“Nervous?” she asked. “Here to watch or participate?”

He shook his head.

The clip of heels, her trill ‘hello’ and a giggle told Charley that Kate joined Cael.

“What is taking so long?” Wyatt asked.

“No idea,” James said.

“What’s your name, big boy?” Charley asked through puckered lips. She crossed and uncrossed her legs a la Sharon Stone.

He shook his head again.

“I don’t like the feel of this,” James said.

Through the walls, Kate and Cael laughed. What had he said to her?

The man checked his watch, pulled on his tie, and crossed his ankles as he leaned against the wall, hands in his pockets.

“Married?” Charley caught sight of his wedding band. “That’s okay by me. Should we start without them?”

He ignored her.

“Wyatt, you need to-” James began.

Charley tuned him out as the quiet steps of rubber against tile made their way in quick succession and stopped at her door.

She adjusted to a more casual position, recrossed her legs and dangled her foot.

“What took you so lon-” She stopped, tensed.

“Hello, Candie.” One walked through the door, followed by a second.

They stood, shoulder to shoulder. Unmistakable. Their suits shone with the silk that infused the weave, shirts half buttoned, ties askew and smiles derisive.

“Oh my god.” Lily’s words echoed Charley’s thoughts.

“What?” Wyatt’s whisper hissed.

“Get them to the hotel, Charley,” James said. “Wyatt, get over here.”

“Not until I know she’s safe!”

“Do it now, Wyatt. She won’t have any problem convincing them,” James said. “Cael, wrap it up with that girl.”

“Hi again.” Charley plastered a shy smile on her face.

With one finger, she motioned them forward. The one on the right did as she expected. His cologne permeated the room, the very same fragrance he’d worn so long ago.

He approached unabated. She stood and met him halfway.

“Don’t do it, Charley,” James said.

With one hand, she grabbed his lapel and pulled him forward, let him put his hands behind her back and lean over her. His mouth crushed hers before she could speak.

“Damn. She did it,” James said.

“Did what?” Wyatt asked. “What the fuck did she do?”

“Get over here, Wyatt!” James said.

Charley let their contact savor, let him feel, let him touch, so he’d know. When he broke their lip-lock, she pointed to the silent man still in the corner.

“An associate,” he said. “Scram.”

The man scurried like a rat from a cage.

“I have a better place if you buy me for the night.” She kept her eyes fixed on his.

His eyebrow raised. “Oh yeah?”

She nodded.

“Buy her for the night, Kevin.” The second man disappeared through the door.

“Small world.” Charley straightened.

“What are you doing, Charley?” Wyatt hissed through the earpiece.

13

“What the fuck is going on!” Wyatt checked for cars as he ran across the street to the hotel.

“You’ll see,” James said.

“I want to know now.” He slowed his pace as he entered the lobby, not bothering to rein in his outward signs of fury.

“Uh, no,” James said.

“Tell me, or you’re fired.”

James laughed.

The elevators wouldn’t come fast enough. He continued to listen for more from Charley and the two men she’d so easily convinced to buy her.

“Go to the left room,” James said. “Lily and I have moved everything over with the real Candie.”

When the doors opened, he rushed inside, pressed his floor button half a dozen times as if that would help.

James snickered. “Coulda taken the stairs.”

“Fuck off,” Wyatt said.

Charley held a one-way conversation which told Wyatt nothing about who she’d met-only that she’d meet them at the gentleman’s entrance in five minutes. Wyatt could only assume they had separated.

“What’s going on, Charley?”

He got no response.

When the doors opened again, he stepped onto the floor. Cael stopped him with one hand outstretched.

“How’d you get over here so fast?”

“Took the stairs,” Cael said.

James chuckled. “Told ya.”

“What’s going on?”

“I don’t know, but you gotta calm down. Charley knows what she’s doing, and if she went in for the kill that early, she knows a lot more than we do.”

“Weren’t you there? Right there? Couldn’t you hear anything?” Wyatt’s voice turned into a plea. He poked Cael in the chest.

“Not with that girl giggling in my ear and the music pumping like it was.” Cael removed Wyatt’s finger. “Trust her, man.”

Trust a woman he barely knew on an op that could mean his career? He knew his Director had lost his mind the moment he’d told him to hire Charley and her team, but he didn’t realize the extent of the senility until that moment.

Cael turned and led the way to their room.

While Wyatt paced, Cael, Lily and James busied themselves with prep work. The plan had moved far faster than expected.

Wyatt stood at the window and waited-lost in thought. How had she convinced him so quickly? Did she know him? Did he know her? Who did he know, Candie or Charley-and how could that be? The questions raced through his head, one after the other.

The girls said their goodbyes as Candie announced she had yet another private off-site. She called out her thanks and ‘see yas’ to them. A door opened and closed before her, ‘Hey boys’ registered. She must have met them outside the club. The click of her heels came before the three forms began their walk